Molly-Mae is a successful influencer, model and business owner. Molly-Mae competed in her first pageant, Miss Teen Great Britain in 2015. She loved the experience so much, that she returned the following year and was crowned one of the winners, winning the World Teen Supermodel UK crown. With this, she travelled to China where she competed in the international pageant, World Teen Supermodel, where she placed 1st Runner Up. In 2019, Molly-Mae was selected to take part in reality tv show – Love Island, and came 1st runner up! Molly-Mae then went on to collaborate with huge brands such as PLT, Tatti Lashes, Beauty Works, and Oh Polly, she has also launched her own hugely-successful fake tan brand – Filter! She has more recently become the creative director of Pretty Little Thing! Below, she reflects on her experience in the Miss Teen Great Britain pageant and how it helped her get to where she is now:
Competing in Miss Teen Great Britain was, hand-on-heart, one of the most memorable and life changing experiences that I’ve ever had. I’ll never forget my first time competing in 2015, travelling from London to Blackpool with my mum, without any idea of what to expect from MTGB. Two days later, we drove home with my heart completely stolen by pageantry (and me non-stop talking about coming back the following year to compete again!).
A year later we took that same drive home with a crown and sash on my lap and to this day I can’t describe the sense of accomplishment I felt.
I now work as a fashion influencer, which truly is my dream job. Since leaving fashion school a year ago, it has always been what I’ve had my heart set on. Competing in Miss Teen Great Britain truly helped me to find my identity and discover who I really am… as cheesy as it may sound, it’s the truth! Having the title of World Teen Supermodel UK meant that I was doing things over the course of my year that made my social media following grow dramatically… it’s seriously possible that, without pageants, I may never have got to a stage where I could turn my dream job into a reality. Whatever career you want to go into, I bet you anything that pageants will aid you getting there in some way!
I am lucky in that I’ve always been a very confident girl but one thing I have always struggled with majorly is home sickness. After winning the title of World Teen Supermodel UK in 2016 at the Miss Teen Great Britain competition, I then travelled to China with my sister queen Brittany, where we competed internationally against girls from across the globe for over a week! Not once in that week did I feel home sick or apprehensive, I had the most incredible time and even had my 18th birthday out there! I always say that my experience cured my home-sickness fear and really pushed me to become the independent girl that I am today, I’ll never forget it.
The best friends I have in my life now have all been made through pageants!!! How crazy is that !!! I lost contact with many of my school friends after leaving and the girls that have stuck by me, and have been my absolute rocks, are all pageant girls. I’m so lucky that the reason I now have the job I have is because my best friend Ella Ravenscroft (Miss Junior Teen Great Britain 2013) told me to go for it and pursue my dream…. I travel every week to Manchester to see her and to work!
My sash hangs on my mirror so, everyday when I wake up I look and remember the experience I had competing in pageants and what they’ve done for me. I am forever grateful to the system for making me the girl I am today, I truly believe that things in my life wouldn’t be as good as they are now if I hadn’t stepped on that stage back in 2015. Competing in Miss Teen GB was, without a doubt, one of (if not, the) best thing I have ever done.
Molly-Mae x
